Crossing the Great Divide
by wwarriorgirl
Summary: Jerrica is propelled into another universe courtesy of TechRat's latest gadget. It is a universe in which Jem is a real person, a person that Jerrica isn't prepared to meet.


The plan worked so well, went so smoothly, and it was because those wretched girls, Pizzazz in particular, weren't around to screw it up or to break his precious gadget.

The plan was elegant in its simplicity. All a henchman, hired by Eric, had to do was put a little bit of a sleeping draught into Jem's drink at the benefit in which she and the Holograms were performing, and once it began to make the pink haired beauty tired, it was a given that Rio, ever the gentleman, would graciously offer to take the lady home. And because Jem was so predictable she would take him up on his offer. Eric had hired someone random to put a little bit of something in Jem's drink to make her tired, and like predicted, Rio offered to take her home, and he did. Everything went exactly as he planned.

And TechRat was sitting in his van outside of the orphan house in which Jem lived, waiting for Rio to take her inside, escort her to her room, and turn on her light. Once the light was on, he would know where to aim his latest and greatest gadget. He would put Jem out of commission for good. And it was all going to work without help from the Misfits.

"Thank you for taking me home Rio." Jem said sleepily. "I usually hold my wine better than this."

Rio chuckled and ran his hands up and down Jem's arms trying to ward off the cold that was in the air. "It's no problem. You're tired, you've had a long week, been performing or practicing for the last two weeks, you need to let yourself rest." She smiled and nodded, stifled a yawn.

"I guess I was more tired than I thought." He kissed her cheek and smoothed hair away from her face.

"Get some rest. I'll see you in the morning." She nodded.

"Good night Rio." She closed the door behind him and went up the stairs, barely able to keep her eyes open. Once inside her room, she flipped the light switch, and quickly asked Synergy to turn off Jem, got into her pjs, took off the Jem star earrings and laid them on the table beside the bed and fell asleep without turning off the light.

TechRat watched the light, waited for a few minutes, wanting to make sure that he was going to zap Jem and not one of the sniveling little Starlight girls, and when the light stayed on, he aimed and fired. Jem wouldn't be a thorn in anyone's backside ever again.

The clock radio blaring startled Jerrica Benton awake. Reflexively she slammed her hand on the snooze button. Looking at the clock she noted that it was before 5 AM. She closed her eyes and tried to orient herself. The day was Thursday, so it was Aja's turn to be up with the girls, there weren't any important meetings she had to attend at Starlight Music, and there were no performances that she had to do or interviews she had to give. So there was absolutely no reason why she should have turned the alarm on. She forced herself into a sitting position, reached over to the night stand and clicked the light on, and rubbed at her eyes. The room came into focus and she gasped. It was the old Starlight house; the one that had burned to the ground at the hands of one of Eric Raymond's goons.

She scrambled out of bed so fast that the sheets caught around her feet causing her to tumble to the floor in a heap. Hurriedly she untangled herself from the bed clothes, stood quickly, and went for her Jem star earrings, only to find that they weren't on the table, a pair of faux pearl earrings were where her Jem star earrings had been when she fell asleep.

"Where are they?" she asked allowed. She knelt down on the floor and searched under the bed, tore apart the bed clothes, and dug behind the bed and the night stand. The earrings were nowhere to be found. Tears burned at the back of her eyes, and she forced herself to calm down.

"This can't be real." She said. "This house burned to the ground more than two years ago. This can't be real." She took a deep breath trying to calm herself. She went to the window that she had looked out from for so many years and reached out to the glass. She expected her hand to go through it, expected it to be a hologram or a dream, but her hand firmly connected with the cold window pane. "Oh God." She breathed and pulled her hand back.

"This can't be possible." She mumbled putting a hand to her mouth. Her brain seemed to be stuck and unable to come up with a solution, or even an option. She stood there frozen unable to move or to think or to do anything. Finally, she forced the gears to start turning, forced her brain to think, to find a solution, to figure out what to do.

"The others will know what's going on." She said as she grabbed her robe and flew out of the room and down the hall where Kimber's room was. She opened the door without knocking and instead of finding her sister, she found a bunk bed with two sleeping preteen girls. Shock rendered her eyes wide and her mouth agape. She padded further down the hallway and opened the door leading to Aja's room, and she found the same scenario as the one in Kimber's. She checked every single room and found no trace of her sister or her friends. Found no trace of Synergy or any evidence to suggest that the house she was standing in was a replica, a fake, an illusion, and instead only found evidence that this was in fact real.

"Jerrica?" she heard Mrs. Baily say from behind her. She gasped and spun on her heals.

"Mrs. Baily!" She gasped and ran to her and hugged the older woman.

"What's the matter Jerrica?"

"Where are the others?"

"The others?"

"Kimber, Aja, Shana….Where are they?"

"Jerrica sweetheart, that softball must have hit you pretty hard."

"What?"

"Last night, at the girl's softball game. When the fly ball hit you in the head last night, you said you were okay but I knew better than to let get out of going to a doctor."

Jerrica reached up and touched the back of her head, it was in fact tender, but it had nothing to do with the confusion…did it?

"Just humor me then Mrs. Baily. Where is Kimber?"

"Jerrica sweetie, are you okay? She hasn't lived here in two years. Remember? She's living in the mansion."

"Which mansion?"

"The one that she and Jem and the others won in the battle of the band's contest."

"Jem?"

"Yeah, that pink haired girl that can sing like all get out but…well…she isn't always the friendliest of young ladies."

"What?" Jerrica asked incredulously.

"Oh Jerrica dear. You must really be out of it today. You go on back to bed, I'll get the girls off to school. I'll call your secretary and tell her you won't be in today."

"No. No. No. I've got it." Jerrica said quickly. The thought of being confined in that bedroom gave her the shivers. She needed to be out and about, she needed to understand what in the hell was going on, she needed to find answers, she needed to get back to where she belonged and there was no way she could do any of that if she was stuck here. "I'm feeling better. I was just a little confused."

"Jerrica you are allowed to take a break, especially if you're sick."

"I'm fine Mrs. Baily, I promise. I'll…" She looked down at her state of undress. "I'll just go change, I'll get the girls ready. Thank you." She quickly hurried back to her room, shut the door and leaned against it, closed her eyes, hoping that when she opened them again it would be her bedroom at the mansion, her Jem star earrings next to her bed, and her sisters down the hall. She opened her eyes, and none of her wishes came true. "Come on Jerrica Benton." She coached herself. "You are stronger than this. You can figure this out. You aren't some weak little girl." Her pep talk finished, she took a fortifying breath, pushed herself away from the door and plunged ahead, determined to get back where she belonged before supper.


End file.
